An Indianapolis fertility doctor accused of inseminating patients with his own sperm is expected to plead guilty to charges that he lied to officials investigating him.

Dr. Donald Cline, a well-known local fertility doctor who last year pleaded not guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, is scheduled to appear in court in December for a change of plea hearing. Marion County deputy prosecutor Tim DeLaney said he expects Cline to plead guilty.

Paternity tests have shown a 99 percent likelihood that Cline is the biological father of at least of two of his patients' children, records show. Those children say online genetic tests suggest he may be the biological father of 20 other half-siblings.

Tuesday about a dozen of Cline’s former patients and their children, now adults, sat in a Marion County Superior Court room as his attorney requested the change of plea hearing. Cline, who retired from practice in 2009, did not appear at the hearing.

None of those present said they expected Cline, a 78-year-old Zionsville resident, to receive any jail time. Some said they would like to see his medical license revoked. Others suggested he be consigned to house arrest or community service.

Matt White, who underwent DNA testing after seeing news account about the case, said he would like Cline to apologize to the women to whom he lied, a list that includes White’s mother.

If not for the advent of genetic testing, the case might never have come to light. But a few years ago, a handful of the children found each other through online genetic testing and discovered they were biologically linked. The fact that there were more than three fathered by the same man initially raised suspicions.

Then DNA tests linked some to a close relative of Cline’s and they grew more suspicious. Eventually, a few of them met with Cline and they say he admitted using his own sperm at times.

In late 2014 a few of those siblings filed a complaint with the Indiana attorney general’s office, which conducted an investigation. Cline denied ever using his sperm in letters sent to investigators, the basis for the obstruction of justice charges against him.

No other charges were filed because Indiana law does not prohibit a fertility doctor from using his own sperm to inseminate his patients.

Jacoba Ballard, one of the first children biologically linked to Cline, said she sees the case differently.

“Justice for me would be the maximum punishment,” she said. “He violated our mothers. That was rape.”

To date, more than 20 half siblings have been identified, White said.

One positive of the situation has been how close many of the children and mothers have become. Many of them are working to find a state representative who will sponsor a law that would ensure a situation like this one never occurs again in Indiana.

“We want to stop this from happening again because this was wrong on so many levels,” Stafford said. “He was playing God and he was doing it for the prestige and the money.”

Call IndyStar staff reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.